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2011-2012 Anniversaries

Rosemont College has much to celebrate this year. Eleven anniversaries, actually.

Main Building is 120! Rosemont College, for 90 of those years has been educating students. The official opening was September 26, 1921.

We also say Happy Anniversary to Gertrude Kistler Memorial Library (85th), The Rambler (80th), the Immaculate Conception Chapel (70th), the Cap and Gown Ceremony (65th), Cardinal Hall (55th), Alumnae Hall (50th), The Grind (40th), the School of Graduate Studies (25th), and the Bill and Rosemarie Seydel McCloskey Fitness Center (10th).

Below are just some of the exciting educational, fun and community building activities we have planned for the year. We hope you will join us for one, some, or all of these events. Look for updates and additional details in future editions of Ravens Report.
1921
August 1, 1921, the deed was signed transferring the Sinnott property to the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. The support of Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia was invaluable at this time and the life of the college until his death in 1952.

September 26, 1921, the Holy Child College for Women opened with seven students, under the guidance of Mother Marie Joseph Dalton, SHCJ, superior of the Rosemont community for its first year.

1926
Gertrude Kistler Memorial Library opens. The Kistler Club is inaugurated. The library was built as a gift from Mr. & Mrs. Sedgwick Kistler in memory of their 12-year-old daughter who drowned in the Merced River in Yosemite National Park while on vacation in 1920. She had been a student in the Holy Child St. Leonard Academy.

The plan called for a one-story building with a small mezzanine and a full basement, to be used as the College chapel; a role it fulfilled until 1941.
1931
The Rambler was introduced as the College's student newspaper.
1941
The Immaculate Conception Chapel is completed. The first College chapel was in Main Building. In 1926, it was in the basement of the Kistler Library. Plans for a new chapel were delayed by the Great Depression; but, finally ground was broken in 1940 and dedicated in 1941. This was to be the last building on campus until the end of World War II.

1946
Rosemont College celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Inauguration of the first Cap and Gown Ceremony on Dec. 5, 1946.
1956
Cardinal Hall, a new dining hall, is built and named after Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia and supporter of the college since its beginning. Until 1956, the dining room for resident students was on the first floor of Mayfield Hall; for non-residents it was in the Tea House, a building no longer in existence. The new facility is for all students and faculty. Cardinal Hall is a split-level structure: the top floor can seat up to 500 for dining. It is also used for social functions on campus. The lower level has offices for facility services.
1961
Alumnae Hall was built on the site of the original gym. The upper level has the basketball court plus the Seydel McCloskey Fitness Center. The lower level contains the college bookstore, the mailroom, cafeteria, commuter lounge, and rooms for student clubs.
1971
Rosemont College celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The Grind is created as a student entertainment center on the lower level of Cardinal Hall. (Later to be moved to Alumnae Hall.)
1986
School of Graduate Studies is established.
1996
Rosemont College celebrated its 75th Anniversary.
2001
The Bill and Rosemarie Seydel McCloskey '52 Fitness Center is officially opened.

2006
The School of Graduate Studies and School of Professional Studies are merged into a single academic unit dedicated to the needs of adult learners.